As far as excuses go, it was absurd. After Washington were trampled 44-16 by the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, defensive end Jason Hatcher suggested the NFL’s officials are against his team because “Redskins” is increasingly considered a racial slur. The fact he said this in a measured, rational tone made the allegation all the more baffling. It seemed Hatcher had actually taken time to think about the subject.
But as preposterous as Hatcher’s allegation might be, the fact he made it shows the burden of the team’s name has finally fallen to the players. And this is important. Once players believe a corporate issue is keeping them from winning games that issue doesn’t go away. It lingers in their minds. Every call that goes against them will come with the nagging worry – no matter how small – that the flag wouldn’t have been thrown if their helmets came without a native American in headdress.
And that ultimately might be the reason Washington will be forced to change their name – not because of protests, or the growing list of prominent people and news organizations (including this one) that won’t use it – but because the players are convinced it is hurting their performance.
For years, Washington’s owner, Daniel Snyder, and president, Bruce Allen, have been the ones to face an onslaught of outrage over a name that denigrates native Americans. Neither has looked comfortable answering the questions about a name change. Snyder has been downright defiant in his responses, vowing never to pull the name off his beloved childhood team. But that battle has always been fought on the first floor of the team’s headquarters. Until now, the controversy never trickled downstairs to the locker room.
The players have undoubtedly talked about the name themselves since reporters occasionally ask about it and the issue is always in the news, yet they rarely confront the issue and almost never bring it up in interviews. The nickname problem was management’s not theirs. By crossing that invisible line and saying the name is the reason the team isn’t getting calls, Hatcher is inadvertently admitting the issue is not just one for the executive offices but is very much alive in the rest of the building.
“I’m not saying this out of character to get fined, but it is what it is,” Hatcher said after the game. “I don’t know if it’s about the name or what, but at the same time, we play football, too. We work our butt off, too. Don’t single us out. At the end of the day, it’s the name. Don’t worry about the name – we’re players and we work our butts off, too. I’m just frustrated with it.
“We shouldn’t have to be punished for that. It’s been every game, calls after calls that should’ve been made in our favor, but it goes to them. It’s just not right. We’re in the league, too. We’re players. We got a team, too. We go out there, and we sweat and work hard, too. I don’t give a crap about the name. We are players. We’ve got feelings, too, and we want to win, too.”
On Monday, head coach Jay Gruden rushed to say the blame for Sunday’s loss belongs to his players not the officials. He is right. When you give up 44 points, the officials aren’t keeping you from a win.
The call that had the Washington players upset wouldn’t have been made four years ago, not because of the team’s name but because of another issue swirling around football: player safety. An interception return for a score by Washington’s Chris Culliver was called back when officials ruled he drove his shoulder into the head of Carolina tight end Greg Olsen, dislodging the ball. Culliver’s touchdown would have given Washington a 20-14 lead.
But the call came because the concern about head trauma has changed the culture of hits in the NFL. Any blow above the shoulders today has a risk of being called unnecessary roughness. Hits like Culliver’s are flagged all the time, now. That’s how the game is called these days.
And yet it’s another culture change that affects Washington now; a societal one that no longer ignores racist words. When the issue went from a constant simmer to an inferno in 2012, Washington fans and team officials seemed surprised by the outrage. They surmised that it was coming because the team was finally coming good after several years at the bottom of the NFC East.
What they never understood was that the world had changed around them. Just as head trauma altered the way hits like Cullver’s are called a greater awareness of tolerance has awakened people to the inappropriateness of Washington’s name. Until now, the team and league’s struggle to accept this reality has been an issue for Snyder and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. They seem willing to fight for the name as long as the advertisers don’t flee.
But Hatcher’s words took that battle to a place it has never really been. He brought it into the locker room and onto the field. He said it was a competitive disadvantage and he said it in a tone that said this was an accepted conclusion among the players. If that is true then the nickname has become a serious problem for Snyder, one much bigger than a 4,500-person protest march, trolling from other teams or a South Park episode. Once players believe they are being targeted because of something like their name, the team can become radioactive. Free agents may think twice before they sign. All the good work done by Gruden and general manager Scot McCloughan in building Washington back to respectability on the field will be destroyed.
Ultimately it might be the words of a frustrated defensive end and not the surge of public opinion that forces Snyder to change his team’s name.
I don’t give a crap about the name.
Maybe finally the owner will have to say the same.
